If you’re 60 and older, starting Wednesday you can get an appointment for a COVID-19 vaccine in any region of the province. And soon, anyone 50 plus in thirteen hot spot regions can book shots. These include: Durham, Halton, Hamilton, Niagara, Ottawa, Peel, Simcoe-Muskoka, Southwestern, Toronto, Waterloo, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph, Windsor-Essex, and York Region.

Under phase two of the vaccine rollout, Ontario is moving up the timeline for vaccinating essential workers by two weeks, now set to start in mid-May. This includes teachers, high risk retail and food manufacturing.

Premier Doug Ford says they’re finalizing plans to vaccinate essential workers where there have been outbreaks.

“We’re coming to you, we’re going to come to these large employers in the hot areas be it Peel, which is about 60 percent hot right across the board, we’re going to focus on those key priorities.”

Despite growing calls for teachers to get vaccinated, Health Minister Christine Elliott says they aren’t set to receive a shot until mid-May.

“To vaccinate all teachers, which is a group we want to get to because they cannot work from home, it then means you’re also taking supplies away from some of the seniors too, so you need to be fair, and follow the plan based on age plus risk.”

On the question of imposing a stay-at-home order as requested by three Medical Officers of Health, Premier Ford would only say options for retail are being discussed but didn’t reveal what they are.

Almost all the vaccine doses received over Easter weekend have been allocated but the Premier is promising 9 million doses to be administered by June if there’s supply.

To book an appointment, visit the provincial vaccine portal